The next step in China's youth tech lockdown

[J-Stuff]

Summary

 China will add a new rule for youth under 14 accessing the china version of the popular app TikTok. Childen under the age of 14 will be restricted to 40 minutes a day (Between the hours of 0600 to 2200) on the china-friendly version of TikTok. This adds to the list of restrictions that are already placed on Chinese youth like how video games can only be played for 3 hours a week on weekends during the day.

 

Quotes

Quote

Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, will limit use of the platform for children to 40 minutes a day.

The rules will apply to users under 14, who have been authenticated using their real names, and who will be able to access it between 06:00 and 22:00.

It comes as China cracks down on teenagers' use of technology.

According to Douyin's user agreement there is no minimum age on the platform, but under 18s must obtain the consent of a legal guardian.

Sources

BBC

[ImAlsoRan]

"So that young people can learn and see the world" Good one, China.

[Dabombinable]

3 minutes ago, ImAlsoRan said:

"So that young people can learn and see the world" Good one, China.

Ah the great firewall...

[CTR640]

1 minute ago, Dabombinable said:

Ah the great firewall...

Firewalls can be invaded. All you need is a (Chinese) Internet Explorer.

[bcredeur97]

how long before we have article after article of kids getting caught bypassing all this lol

[JLO64]

I am kinda torn on this. One the one hand, I despise most aspects of social media (why do you think I'm on a forum in 2021) and I genuinely believe that most people would be better off without it (see Facebook's recently leaked internal investigations on the rise of teen and pre-teen suicides and other mental health illnesses linked to their platforms). That being said, I'm also not a fan of my government telling me what I can and can not do. This is pretty similar to China's recent restrictions on online gaming, but the effects of online gaming are nowhere near as bad as what social media can produce (especially among the youth). Honestly, if I had a child I would probably implement similar policies with them (or just no social media), but that would be something I'd apply to my kid and not on hundreds of millions of other children.

[Fasterthannothing]

11 minutes ago, JLO64 said:

I am kinda torn on this. One the one hand, I despise most aspects of social media (why do you think I'm on a forum in 2021) and I genuinely believe that most people would be better off without it (see Facebook's recently leaked internal investigations on the rise of teen and pre-teen suicides and other mental health illnesses linked to their platforms). That being said, I'm also not a fan of my government telling me what I can and can not do. This is pretty similar to China's recent restrictions on online gaming, but the effects of online gaming are nowhere near as bad as what social media can produce (especially among the youth). Honestly, if I had a child I would probably implement similar policies with them (or just no social media), but that would be something I'd apply to my kid and not on hundreds of millions of other children.

Unfortunately most parents don't seem to give a crap. Social media for kids is just a terrible idea anyway. I mean just look at the Instagram study that Facebook buried.  If kids want to communicate with each other there are many other ways. Social media is just gotten too toxic for young people in my opinion. I don't think though that the government should be doing any restrictions whatsoever with social media.

[BobVonBob]

4 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

how long before we have article after article of kids getting caught bypassing all this lol

Probably never. These bans are genuinely difficult to bypass since the timeouts are tied to the account user's actual identity, which needs to be entered to create an account in the first place. There will be a few, but it's not going to be widespread since bypassing it would definitely require some form of assistance from an adult, and adults know that wilful disregard for the law is a very bad idea in China.

[JLO64]

43 minutes ago, SlidewaysZ said:

Unfortunately most parents don't seem to give a crap. Social media for kids is just a terrible idea anyway. I mean just look at the Instagram study that Facebook buried.  If kids want to communicate with each other there are many other ways. Social media is just gotten too toxic for young people in my opinion. I don't think though that the government should be doing any restrictions whatsoever with social media.

I'm a college student and recently I got in a conversation with a psychology major about social media usage (she said I was "brave" for not using it).

Her main argument for letting kids use it was that they need to learn how to use tech. I then brought up the counter point that despite having never used social media growing up I had built my own computer, installed Linux and MacOS on said computer, worked at a charity that donated computers, and became a computer science major(which I quickly noped out of). If a psych major who's supposed to be aware of this kind of junk isn't concerned about the effects of social media, what are the chances that most parents care about it's negative effects on their children as well?

[poochyena]

44 minutes ago, SlidewaysZ said:

I mean just look at the Instagram study that Facebook buried.  If kids want to communicate with each other there are many other ways.

Is this to imply the other ways are less toxic? If so, what leads you to believe this?

[CommanderAlex]

1 hour ago, Dabombinable said:

Ah the Great Firewall...

There, I fixed it for you! 

[atxcyclist]

49 minutes ago, JLO64 said:

I'm a college student and recently I got in a conversation with a psychology major about social media usage (she said I was "brave" for not using it).

Her main argument for letting kids use it was that they need to learn how to use tech. I then brought up the counter point that despite having never used social media growing up I had built my own computer, installed Linux and MacOS on said computer, worked at a charity that donated computers, and became a computer science major(which I quickly noped out of). If a psych major who's supposed to be aware of this kind of junk isn't concerned about the effects of social media, what are the chances that most parents care about it's negative effects on their children as well?

While social media has its downsides, the fact of the matter is that competency in navigating platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and etc. are part of a huge skillset that's becoming a requirement for job positions. It actually hinders the ability to "use" a computer these days if you're not learning how to navigate the more popular parts of the internet.

 

I too built my first computer (though it was 4.77mhz), and learned programming and other things utilizing nothing but a monochrome IBM monitor, 512kb of memory, and a 2400 baud modem. But none of that is even relevant these days. It was a springboard for my current abilities, but someone that's growing up today and gets into social media, will likely be doing better in 25 years than I am now after 25 years of building computers as a hobby.

[J-Stuff]

1 hour ago, bcredeur97 said:

how long before we have article after article of kids getting caught bypassing all this lol

Can't wait lmao

[J-Stuff]

1 hour ago, BobVonBob said:

since bypassing it would definitely require some form of assistance from an adult

Keep in mind other social media platforms exist, Also that there are other bans on content/sites that range up to 18/21 Y/O's

 

[poochyena]

28 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

are part of a huge skillset that's becoming a requirement for job positions.

Its a job in of it self. There are hundreds of thousands of people who make a livable income on managing social media networks, whether it be their own profile, a corporate's profile, or managing a platform from a moderation position.

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, J-Stuff said:

Summary

 China will add a new rule for youth under 14 accessing the china version of the popular app TikTok. Childen under the age of 14 will be restricted to 40 minutes a day (Between the hours of 0600 to 2200) on the china-friendly version of TikTok. This adds to the list of restrictions that are already placed on Chinese youth like how video games can only be played for 3 hours a week on weekends during the day.

 

Quotes

Sources

BBC

This is all about control. Many games have social components that are completely unmonitored by the Big Nanny State. 

 

TikTok and other social media companies that operate inside the country CAN be monitored.

[Rex Hite]

Like with the video game limits, the Chinese government is investing in the nation's future. But there's a paradox.

In market driven consumerist societies, how much, and on what, consumer-citizens spend their time and money is a political choice. That's because in such societies maintaining consumerist choice is a national political ideal and not merely an effect of a so-called free market. That means the choices made by all participants in markets are political. Which, by definition, means it is all the public's business; ie the government's. The paradox is that free-market consumerist choice as we know it only works when centralised corporate and government decisions provide not only the means to allow it, but what the choices can be..

 

Maybe delusion is a better word than paradox.

[Brooksie359]

15 hours ago, JLO64 said:

I am kinda torn on this. One the one hand, I despise most aspects of social media (why do you think I'm on a forum in 2021) and I genuinely believe that most people would be better off without it (see Facebook's recently leaked internal investigations on the rise of teen and pre-teen suicides and other mental health illnesses linked to their platforms). That being said, I'm also not a fan of my government telling me what I can and can not do. This is pretty similar to China's recent restrictions on online gaming, but the effects of online gaming are nowhere near as bad as what social media can produce (especially among the youth). Honestly, if I had a child I would probably implement similar policies with them (or just no social media), but that would be something I'd apply to my kid and not on hundreds of millions of other children.

The suicide rate in people who grew up with social media vs people who didn't use social media until high-school is actually crazy different. Part of me thinks it might not be a bad idea to have restrictions on social media for kids because it is clearly a huge issue. I mean we have restrictions on movies with movie ratings we have restrictions on alcohol and other drugs so if social media is an actual threat to young peoples mental health I don't see an issue with trying to address this. 

[Brooksie359]

14 hours ago, JLO64 said:

I'm a college student and recently I got in a conversation with a psychology major about social media usage (she said I was "brave" for not using it).

Her main argument for letting kids use it was that they need to learn how to use tech. I then brought up the counter point that despite having never used social media growing up I had built my own computer, installed Linux and MacOS on said computer, worked at a charity that donated computers, and became a computer science major(which I quickly noped out of). If a psych major who's supposed to be aware of this kind of junk isn't concerned about the effects of social media, what are the chances that most parents care about it's negative effects on their children as well?

This is the biggest question I have to people who say stuff like that. Most of the tech savvy people I know myself included don't use or rarely use social media. Unless you consider youtube social media. I simply don't get why people would think not using social media makes people suck at using tech or computers in general. I would honestly wonder how they think social media teaches them how to be tech savvy.

[williamcll]

17 hours ago, ImAlsoRan said:

"So that young people can learn and see the world" Good one, China.

Letting them see how awful the rest of the world is compared to the acted out videos online this might be an eye opener for the lot of them.

[Armin]

Aaaahh DOUYIN what a great name

[Fasterthannothing]

17 hours ago, poochyena said:

Is this to imply the other ways are less toxic? If so, what leads you to believe this?

Umm yeah because subjecting your kids to people online is always more toxic then handing them a phone with pre programmed numbers of their friends in it. Any time you can limit and more easily monitor your kids circle of friends and who they communicate with you help cut down on toxic stuff they can see.

[Fasterthannothing]

17 hours ago, JLO64 said:

I'm a college student and recently I got in a conversation with a psychology major about social media usage (she said I was "brave" for not using it).

Her main argument for letting kids use it was that they need to learn how to use tech. I then brought up the counter point that despite having never used social media growing up I had built my own computer, installed Linux and MacOS on said computer, worked at a charity that donated computers, and became a computer science major(which I quickly noped out of). If a psych major who's supposed to be aware of this kind of junk isn't concerned about the effects of social media, what are the chances that most parents care about it's negative effects on their children as well?

I was told I was crazy not to use social media and heard a similar argument about not knowing how to navigate the internet lol! Those same people can't even connect their printer to their laptop. I had a very similar upbringing in relation to technology and social media. I never had social media and yet I built my own computer, learned how to unlock the bootloader and root my tablets and phones back when you could do that on androids. I saved up and bought a laptop with my own money, setup my own Linux server, and taught myself programming all before I was even in college. That's not to brag but to show like you yourself also experienced social media isn't needed to succeed or navigate technology.

[Fasterthannothing]

16 hours ago, atxcyclist said:

While social media has its downsides, the fact of the matter is that competency in navigating platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and etc. are part of a huge skillset that's becoming a requirement for job positions. It actually hinders the ability to "use" a computer these days if you're not learning how to navigate the more popular parts of the internet.

 

I too built my first computer (though it was 4.77mhz), and learned programming and other things utilizing nothing but a monochrome IBM monitor, 512kb of memory, and a 2400 baud modem. But none of that is even relevant these days. It was a springboard for my current abilities, but someone that's growing up today and gets into social media, will likely be doing better in 25 years than I am now after 25 years of building computers as a hobby.

You don't need to have social media to have the knowledge on how to navigate social media. Those sites are literally built for computer illiterate people who are lucky if they can find the power button on their desktop. I'm pretty sure if my 60~yr grandma can use social media I can if I had to. Besides SEO isn't learned purely from using social media.

[poochyena]

1 hour ago, SlidewaysZ said:

Umm yeah because subjecting your kids to people online is always more toxic then handing them a phone with pre programmed numbers of their friends in it. Any time you can limit and more easily monitor your kids circle of friends and who they communicate with you help cut down on toxic stuff they can see.

I really do not see how talking to people on instagram vs through texting is any different other than texting being more costly.